Why get involved?

A strong neighbourhood is built on the relationships between neighbours and on the effort that neighbours put into creating and maintaining a safe and happy place to live.

Being the person who starts a neighbourhood activity or who brings people together to talk about issues that concern your neighbourhood sets a great example for others to get involved. It often takes just one person to make the first step in energizing and engaging a whole neighbourhood. When people get involved in their neighbourhood and help each other out, safer and healthier communities are created.

When Don Wadel looks back on his career in corrections and at the John Howard Society, he’ll no doubt remember the tragedies along with the triumphs. As Don will tell you, anyone in his line of work gets marked by such incidents, and becomes more determined to keep communities safe.

Don’s career started in Alberta in 1974, where he worked as a jail guard and established programs at the Calgary Correctional Centre. By 1986, he joined the John Howard Society of Ottawa as Executive Director. A year earlier, Celia Ruygrok, a young halfway house staff member, was brutally murdered by a resident. It was a tragedy that marked the John Howard Society to its core. Already dealing with internal challenges, including low staff morale and high turnover, the organization needed a lifeline. And that lifeline was Don.